I'm doing a bit of tinkering with a series of feats inspired by the Magic the Gathering creature Tome-Bound Lich. The series of feats will be themed for Necromancer/pact of tome warlocks and will effectively be used to show their progression in researching how to become a Lich or become some form of undead.
So far I have a 4 stage progression of feats, have a red through and let me know any thoughts, comments, etc
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 1
Requires: either Wizard (Necromancer) level 3 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 3.
There exists some bastardised rituals of Undeath that can allow a practioner to assume some of the powers and abilities of a Lich. While it does not grant true immorality it can set people on the path to discover the true rituals required. Once you have taken this feat a ritual is revealed to you, either through your research or through your Warlock patron. This ritual requires 500gp of materials (the DM decides what these will be) and once completed allows you to bind some of your life force to either your Wizard Spell Book or your Warlock Book of Shadows. Doing so bestows the following:
You learn a Necromancy cantrip and can cast it at will.
You can hold your spell book or book of shadows as an additional material component when casting a Necromancy spell. If you do you gain either +2 bonus to hit or a +2 bonus to the spell DC.
You gain advantage on any saving through to resist a Necromancy spell.
Finally, whilst your Spell Book/Book of Shadows is within 10ft of you, you can use an action to expend a spell slot, if you do you can roll up to one of your hit dice per level of the spell slot expended and heal that amount of hit points.
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 2
Requires: Tome-bound Lich 1 and be either Wizard (Necromancer) level 6 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 6.
Your research has opened up further lore and insight into death. You learn a ritual that enable you to scribe a Book of Death. This new book contains the basic ritual required to animate the dead and extend life through Necromancy and requires 500gp of materials to create (the DM decides what these will be). If you lose your Book of Death or if it is destroyed, you can perform a 1 hour ritual to summon a copy of the book, doing so requires another 500gp of materials which are consumed during the ritual, if the Book was lost the old book turns to ash when the new one is summoned. The book of Death turns to ash when you die.
You learn the level 3 spell Animate Dead, if you use your Book of Death as an additional Material component you can cast Animate Dead as a ritual with a 10 minute casting time.
You also gain Ghoul Touch. Whilst the Book of Death is within 10ft of you, you can use your action to make a melee spell attack, if you hit the target must make a Constitution Saving throw against your spell DC or be paralysed for 1 minute. The target can attempt a further saving throw at the end of their turns, ending the effect on a successful save.
Finally, although you are not undead you detect as if you were.
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 3
Requires: Tome-bound Lich 2 and be either Wizard (Necromancer) level 9 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 9.
Your research has granted more insights and you discover a ritual to create a Book of Undeath. This new book contains the basic ritual required to manipulate Necrotic energy and further extend life through Necromancy and requires 1000gp of materials to create (the DM decides what these will be). If you lose your Book of Undeath or if it is destroyed, you can perform a 1 hour ritual to summon a copy of the book, doing so requires another 1000gp of materials which are consumed during the ritual. if the Book was lost the old book turns to ash when the new one is summoned. The Book of Undeath turns to ash when you die.
You gain a Frightening Gaze, whist the Book of Undeath is with 10ft of you, you can use your action to attempt to fix your gaze on one creature you can see within 10 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell DC or become frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to your frightening gaze for the next 24 hours.
When you create your Book of Undeath you can select one Sorcerers Meta Magic. Whenever you cast a Necromancy spell you can use your Book of Undeath as an additional material component, if you do you can apply that meta magic to the spell.
Finally, you are now undead and have a recently deceased/zombielike appearance. You can be turned by a clerics channel divinity but not destroyed. You should also check spell descriptions as you may take other effects now you are undead.
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 4
Requires: Tome-bound Lich 3 and be either Wizard (Necromancer) level 12 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 12.
Your research reaches it fruition and you discover the secrets of life in death. You gain two ways to protect your physical body.
If you have your Spell Book/Book of Shadows and your Books of Death and Undeath within 10ft of you when you complete a Long Rest, you can choose to become affected by a Death Ward Spell with a 24 hour duration.
You can also create a ritual circle in a safe haven. If you die and your Spell Book/Book of Shadows and your Books of Death and Undeath are within 10ft of you, you can choose to have them all turn to ash, if you do, your body turns to ash and reappears in your previously created ritual circle if it is on the same plane of existence where it reforms into a new body in 1d10 days, you regain all hit points and any missing body parts, you cannot use this ability if your ritual circle is on a different plane of existence. Creating this ritual circle requires 1000gp of material components (the DM decides what these will be).
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Further to the above and some other threads about players wanting to play as a Lich.....(be warned...this is a long post)...
So you want to be a Lich? Good luck with that!
After reading a few post on D&D beyond about if it is possible to play as a Lich I got to thinking about how I would let a player try to achieve that state and came up with the following set of rituals.
DM's, Feel free to use or not as you see fit. These could be information for players to uncover in order to become lichs or if you have a spell caster as your BBEG this could be used to explain how the spell caster is trying to become a Lich.
Players: Do not assume any of this is appropriate for you to use without triple checking with your DM that they are happy to incorporate it into their campaign.
Lich rituals:
With any of the rituals noted below, the DM can deem additional research, ability skill checks to be required or quests to be completed before they can be attempted. Where Arcana checks are stipulated the DM can substitute Religion if you are a divine spell caster attempting to become a Lich.
Note to DM's: Throughout these rituals are references to "at DM's option" and "of DM's Choosing" I've included these so you can make the rituals as easy or difficult as you want for the potential Lich and to also enable you to go into as much detail as you deem appropriate for your game.
Note to players: Throughout these rituals they are references to "at DM's option" and "of DM's Choosing", if at any point your DM says you cannot perform anything listed below for any reason then don't be an (expletive deleted) about it. Your DM has the final say on when, where, how and indeed if, you can do any of the below.
IMPORTANT: any material components used in any of these rituals are consumed during the ritual regardless of whether it was a success or failure.
Material Components may include any component listed for any spell in any of the published materials and DM's should feel free to use riddles or vague descriptions for players to interpret, such as: A Still living heart, rays of a reflected sun held in darkness etc.
These rituals represent stages in a spell casters development but is a very long and VERY expensive process.
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Before you can attempt to go down the path to Lichdom you need to attune yourself to death and obtain the feat: Tomb Born.
FEAT: Tomb Born:
Requires: The ability to cast at least 2 cantrips and/or spells from the school of Necromancy.
You undergo a magical ritual called "Crucimigration" during which Necromantic magic infuses your mortal form and sustains you, at the DM's option this may require certain research, items or material components to completed but the base version would entail meditating in a coffin or tomb for at least 8 hours. Once completed, your body becomes unusually thin and your flesh is taught over your bones giving you a freakishly gaunt appearance.
Once the ritual is complete you no longer need to sleep, eat or drink, however, you still need to complete a long rest to prepare your spells or pray to your God for spells.
You are also immune to magical sleep.
You also no longer age but can be aged by magical affects.
You can eat if you wish to but you gain no pleasure from doing so, all food and drink tastes like ash. Should the food/drink be poisoned or diseased you can still be affected by those conditions.
You now discern as Undead to any spells or abilities that would detect them, although you cannot be turned/destroyed nor do you take extra damage by spells or abilities such as Channel Divinity as this feat does not actually make you Undead. There is however one major drawback, the necromantic energies infusing you inhibit healing magic, you only receive 50% of any healing from magical means. Many who have undergone this ritual refer to themselves as Necropolitans, that is, creatures that come from death.
Once this feat has been acquired you can start on the following course of research.
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Ritual: Phylactaris Arcana:
Prerequisite: the ability to cast at least 3 spells of 1st level or higher from the school of Necromancy using spell slots.
This ritual is the creation and enchanting of your Phylactery. The Phylactery is the artefact that binds your soul to the material realm and prevents it from moving onto the afterlife.
The Phylactery starts of as any mundane item that has an internal space, suitable items include a box, an amulet with a hollow interior or a crystal vial with a stopper, the internal space can be as small as a pea and there is no limit to how big the internal space can be as long as it is an enclosed space and can be considered a non-magical item. The item to be used must be worth at least 1gp.
The spellcaster must inscribe runes of naming, binding, immortality and dark magic around the inside and outside of the item, for the runes of naming your characters true name must be used. Each rune can be considered to contain all these details with minor variations.
Inscribing a rune requires proficiency in Tinkers or Jewellers Tools.
The item requires 15 runes to become usable as a Lich Phylactery. These runes must be inscribed in silver, each rune requires 1 hour to inscribe and costs 100gp worth of silver and other ritual magic components of the DM's choice in addition to the expenditure of a spell slot of at least 1st level. The spell slot is expended at the start of the hour and you use this magical energy to guide your hands as they etch a rune meaning the actual size of the proposed phylactery is render moot.
After 1 hour you make an Arcana skill check. The base DC for this Arcana check is 10 +1 for each rune being inscribed or currently inscribed on the item, for example, inscribing the first rune requires a successful DC11 check, inscribing the fifth rune would require a DC15 check and inscribing the final rune requires a DC25 check.
If you fail an Arcana check the rune fails to hold the magic expended from the spell slot and the rune is wasted and must be inscribed again, due to this failure the roll for the next attempt is made at disadvantage.
Expending spell slots above 1st level does not provide any bonuses or additional effects during this process.
The DM can impose additional bonuses or penalties they deem appropriate, for example, if you are sailing from one continent to another and have 3 days in a storm and attempt to inscribe a rune they would at least impose disadvantage on the roll, or failing a roll more than once may impose higher DC's.
You can take as long as you need to inscribe the runes, however, unless all 15 runes have been inscribed, a Dispel Magic targeted on the phylactery will disperse all the runes you have inscribed and you will have to start from the beginning again. Once the item has had 15 runes inscribed successfully it becomes enchanted and is considered magical, the only effect it grants at that stage is if you die the Phylactery can be used in place of the usual material components for spells that raise a person from the dead, such as Raise Dead, Reincarnation etc. If used in this fashion the phylactery is destroyed and consumed by the spell and a new one must be created.
Should anyone else look over the phylactery a successful Arcana check (DC is your spell casting DC) will confirm they are necromantic runes dealing with binding, dark magic, immortality and your characters true name (this may not be apparent if you have been using a false name throughout your travels).
Only once the Phylactery has been completed can you progress onto the other rituals.
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The following rituals can be completed in any order as long as you meet the prerequisite noted and have completed the Phylactaris Arcana ritual and used it to inscribe 15 runes onto your phylactery.
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Ritual of Necronomica:
Prerequisites: the ability to cast the spells Animate Dead and Magic Circle.
You can conduct a 4 hour long ritual on your Phylactery to empower each rune. This involves expending three spell slots of at least level 3 and 1000gp worth of material and ritual components of the DM's choice which are consumed by the ritual. The spell slots are expended at the beginning of the ritual and you use the magic of these spell slots to bond further magic to your Phylactery. This ritual needs to be completed 15 times to empower each rune on your Phylactery.
After each ritual is complete you need to make a Arcana check. The DC for this Arcana check is 15 +1 per rune you are empowering or have empowered, for example the DC is 16 for the first rune and 30 for the 15th rune.
Should the ritual be interrupted or otherwise end early, all material components are consumed by the ritual and you take 3d6 Necrotic damage for each hour (rounding up) that the ritual had been active for, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Should you be unable to expend three spell slots of level 3 or high to fuel the ritual, the ritual ends and the material components are consumed and you take 3d6 Necrotic damage, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Once a single rune has been empowered through this ritual you can use your Phylactery as a magical focus for spell casting and can additionally place it on a corpse or pile of bones and cast the Animate Dead spell without expending a spell slot once per long rest, cast in this way you can only animate a single Zombie or Skeleton.
In order to commence the final ritual, all the runes on your Phylactery must have been empowered through this ritual.
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Ritual of Transference:
Prerequisite: The ability to cast the spells Life Transference and Vampiric Touch using a level 3 spell slot.
You can conduct a 4 hour long ritual on your Phylactery to empower each rune. This involves expending a spell slot of at least level 4 and 1000gp worth of material components of the DM's choice. At the start of this ritual you expend a spell slot and use its energy to bind your life force to a rune on your Phylactery. After four hours the ritual is complete and you suffer 20 hit points of damage from the life transference, this damage cannot be reduced or redirected as you willingly drop your resistances etc to fuel the spell. In addition you need to make a Constitution Saving Throw, on a success you suffer one level of exhaustion and the rune becomes empowered and glows faintly with magic, on a failure you suffer a level of exhaustion but the magic fades and does not become empowered. The base DC for this Saving Throw is 10 +1 for each rune being inscribed or currently inscribed, for example, inscribing the first rune requires a successful DC11 Saving Throw, inscribing the fifth rune would require a DC15 Saving Throw and inscribing the final rune requires a DC25 Saving Throw.
Should the ritual be interrupted or otherwise end early, all material components are consumed by the ritual and you take 4d6 Necrotic damage, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Should you be unable to expend a spell slot of level 4 or high to fuel the ritual, the ritual ends and the material components are consumed and you take 4d6 Necrotic damage, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Once a single rune has been empowered you gain a new Action to use. While your phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use your Action to spend one or more of your hit dice to heal yourself, you can use a maximum number of your hit dice equal to your proficiency bonus and once you have used this ability you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest, this healing is pulled from your phylactery and although it is magical it is not reduced by the Tomb Born feat.
In order to commence the final ritual, all runes on your phylactery must have been empowered through this ritual.
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Ritual of the Tomb:
Prerequisite: the ability to cast Contact Other Plane or Commune using a spell slot OR access to the Magic Item: Book of Vile Darkness.
Once you have completed the Phylactaris Arcana ritual you can meditate and cast an 8 hour long ritual to contact a being or patron that can reveal secret rituals and abilities to you. This ritual requires you to have previously contacted an entity via the Contact Other Plane or Commune spell that has confirmed they would be willing to teach you the rituals to become a Lich. This ritual also requires 5000gp of materials of the DM choice. When the ritual starts you expend a spell slot of 5th level or higher to fuel the magic, at that point you contact the entity and negotiate with them for the knowledge you seek and they tutor you over the next 8 hours in the methods of achieving Lichdom. Once completed the DM chooses one of the following five abilities that you have been taught and they may not be given in the order listed and at DM's option they may come with other caveats before you can utilise them such as performing a task for the entity you contacted:
1) You can hold your Phylactery as an additional material component when casting a Necromancy spell. If you do you gain either +2 bonus to hit or a +2 bonus to the spell DC, these bonuses last for the duration of the spell as long as you are holding your Phylactery.
2) Whilst your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you gain advantage on all saving throws to resist spells from the school of Necromancy.
3) Whilst your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use an action to expend a spell slot, if you do you can roll 1d6 per level of the spell slot expended and heal that amount of hit points, this is magical healing but is not reduced by the Tomb Born feat.
4) You learn the Ritual of the Tomb Bound (see below)
5) You learn the Ritual of Soot (see below)
Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 20, suffering 3 levels of exhaustion on a successful saving throw and suffering 5 levels of exhaustion on a failed saving throw, on a natural roll of 1 on the saving throw you are also affected by a Geas cast at 9th level by the entity/patron you were communing with, the DM decides what sort of Geas this will be.
If this ritual is interrupted all components are consumed and you make the above saving throw at disadvantage.
You can repeat this ritual up to five times, gaining a different ability each time.
If you have access to the Book of Vile Darkness you can ignore the need to contact an entity and instead use the book as a focus during the 8 hour ritual, once completed you learn one of the abilities noted above but you still need to make saving throws to avoid the exhaustion and the Book can place you under a Geas on a natural roll of 1.
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Ritual of the Tomb-bound
Prerequisite: Must have completed the Ritual of the Tomb and learned the Ritual of the Tomb-bound and be able to cast a Necromancy spell of 7th level.
Your research and otherworldly mentoring, has opened up further lore and insight into death. You can add a further rune to your phylactery, this requires the expenditure of a level 5 spell slot at the start of the ritual, 2500gp worth of material components of the DMs choice and 4 hours to complete the ritual. After 4 hours you need to roll an Arcana check against a DC of 20. On a failure the magic fades and nothing happens and the components are consumed by the ritual. If you attempt the ritual again you make the ability check at disadvantage. On success you gain the following:
1) If you cast the level 3 spell Animate Dead and you use your Phylactery as an additional Material component you can cast Animate Dead as a ritual with a 10 minute casting time. Your control over the Zombies and Skeletons raised with this ritual version of Animate Dead lasts until the zombies or skeletons are destroyed.
2) You also gain a special Paralyzing Touch attack. Whilst your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use your action to make a melee spell attack, if you hit the target must make a Constitution Saving throw against your spell DC or be paralysed for 1 minute. The target can attempt a further saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on a successful save. If a target makes the save against your attack they are immune to your paralysing touch for 24 hours.
Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 20, suffering 3 levels of exhaustion on a successful saving throw and suffering 5 levels of exhaustion on a failed saving throw.
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Ritual of Soot
Prerequisite: Must have completed the Ritual of the Tomb and learned the Ritual of Soot and be able to cast a Necromancy spell of 7th level.
Your research and other worldly mentoring has granted more insights and you discover a ritual to harness Undeath, manipulate necrotic energy and further extend life through Necromancy. You can add a further rune to your phylactery, this requires the expenditure of a level 5 spell slot at the start of the ritual, 2500gp material components of the DMs choice and 4 hours to complete the ritual. After 4 hours you need to roll an Arcana check against a DC of 20. On a failure the magic fades and nothing happens. If you attempt the ritual again you make the ability check at disadvantage. On success you gain the following:
You gain a Frightening Gaze, whist your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use your action to attempt to fix your gaze on one creature you can see within 10 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell DC or become frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to your frightening gaze for the next 24 hours.
When you create this new rune on your Phylactery you can select one Sorcerers Meta Magic, whenever you then cast a Necromancy spell you can use your Phylactery as an additional material component, if you do you can apply that meta magic to the spell.
Finally, you are now undead and have a recently deceased/zombielike appearance but no other special abilities, resistances or immunities. You can be turned by channel divinity and effects that mimic channel divinity but not destroyed. You should also check spell descriptions as you may take other effects now you are undead.
Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 20, suffering 3 levels of exhaustion on a successful saving throw and suffering 5 levels of exhaustion on a failed saving throw.
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Transcend the Mortal Form
Prerequisite: Must have completed all the rituals noted above and have a fully empowered Phylactery and be a 18th level spell caster.
Your research reaches it fruition and you discover the secrets of life in death. This final ritual requires 25,000gp of material components of the DM's choice and requires 30 days to complete as you empower the phylactery with all your knowledge and fuel your transcendence into and Undead form. Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 25, on a success you are now a Lich, on a failure you DIEas your still mortal form proves to weak to cage the magical energies you are trying to harness.
If you are successful, your mortal form becomes more corpse like and you gain the following:
You gain Damage Immunities: Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing From Nonmagical Attacks
You gain Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals cold damage you gain Damage Resistance: Cold
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals lightning damage you gain Damage Resistance: Lightning
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals necrotic damage you gain Damage Resistance: Necrotic
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals cold damage you gain Damage Resistance: Cold
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals poison damage you gain Damage Immunity: Poison and Immunity to the Poisoned Condition.
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals charms or dominates humanoids you gain Immunity to the Charmed Condition.
**If you have access to the Book of Vile Darkness and can use it during this ritual you automatically gain all damage resistances and condition immunities regardless of which spells you know.
***also note following these rituals does not grant any Legendary actions or legendary resistances or any Lair actions or regional effects.
Your Phylactery is now fully empowered and works as described in the Monster Manual.
Well, no w you have to remember to feed souls to your phylactery to stay immortal, ok what follows is mostly NPC stuff for DM's to use around feeding and story hooks.
Now the Monster Manual (pg 202) states that a soul must be feed to the Phylactery periodically but does not say how often. Now we can infer that Lichs are not ravenous hunger obsessed individuals so the timescale mentioned of "24 hours" for a body and soul to be consumed by a Phylactery is just the time scale you have to free someone that has been imprisoned, so it would be safe to assume that all a Lich has to do is remember to feed souls on a regular basis. There are a few options for this and remember that the level 9 spell Imprisonment spell is required for this:
1) One soul grants one year of immortality. As a Phylactery can only hold one soul at a time this means the Lich has to imprison another soul after a year and a day (because you cannot imprison another until the first one has worn off).
2) One Soul grants a number of years of Immortality equal to the number of hit dice it has. This gives a bit of flexibility to the Lich, a standard humanoid will have 1 hit dice and do in a pinch but it also gives them a more villainous aspect if they purposely go out hunting powerful adventurers to feed to their Phylactery, a level 10-15 adventurer can sustain them for a long time.
3) One soul grants a number of years of immortality equal to the Lichs Hit Dice. This makes it a little easier on the Lich as they can plan with certainty when they next need to feed a soul to the Phylactery.
4) The Lich needs to feed a number of souls equal to their hit dice to the Phylactery every 100 years. This one is a bit harder to monitor as the Lich needs to keep track of time and plan out when each soul is going to wear off.
5) (Player Lich) accept that the campaign is unlikely to stretch of many years/lifetimes s this is all a bit moot. As long as a soul is sacrificed to the Phylactery every year of game time it should be ok.
The feeding cycle of a Lich does make for a useful story hook. here's a few options:
1) The Lich sends out minions to stalk likely candidates and then it goes on something akin to a fox hunt, pursuing its intended victim. It does not need to rest unless it needs to restore its spell slots so proves to be a relentless hunter.
2) The party come across a village, it is pleasant and everyone is friendly and amiable, it is quite idyllic. Once a year however they hold an event to find the summer king/queen. It is always hotly contested and is comprised of a series of events and challenges. The winner is sent to to the Feywild to live forever in the summer court with the fey. Over course the reality is a Lich has duped the town for generations and imprisons the winner to sustain them for another year.
3) (A good/neutral aligned Lich option) A merchant guild hires the party to investigate the disappearance of a ship, they suspect pirates. In reality a Lich has been attacking the guilds ships as they are slavers. The Lich sets the slaves and most of the crew free with a threat that if they reveal who attacked them a fate worse than death awaits them. The Captains are always taken and used to fuel the Lichs phylactery, they are held in a Demiplane so escape is impossible. Backstory wise, the Lich may have been a slave sold to a Necromancer who managed to survive and indeed thrive in their indenture and became a practitioner of arcane arts with the sole goal of gaining revenge on the merchant guild that sold them.
4) (good aligned lich option) The Lich is a goodly aligned servant of a Celestial power sworn to never-ending vigilance and protection of an area where a powerful demon is imprisoned. Every year a willing servant of the celestial power goes to be imprisoned to help the Lich. (Think the Emperor on the Golden Throne from War hammer 40k). The party may be feed information about this Lich that has so dominate an area that it can control people and force them to sacrifice themselves only for the party to find out the group feeding them information is a cabal of demon worshipers and they have to side with the Lich to defeat them.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Morning/Afternoon/Evening Folks,
I'm doing a bit of tinkering with a series of feats inspired by the Magic the Gathering creature Tome-Bound Lich. The series of feats will be themed for Necromancer/pact of tome warlocks and will effectively be used to show their progression in researching how to become a Lich or become some form of undead.
So far I have a 4 stage progression of feats, have a red through and let me know any thoughts, comments, etc
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 1
Requires: either Wizard (Necromancer) level 3 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 3.
There exists some bastardised rituals of Undeath that can allow a practioner to assume some of the powers and abilities of a Lich. While it does not grant true immorality it can set people on the path to discover the true rituals required. Once you have taken this feat a ritual is revealed to you, either through your research or through your Warlock patron. This ritual requires 500gp of materials (the DM decides what these will be) and once completed allows you to bind some of your life force to either your Wizard Spell Book or your Warlock Book of Shadows. Doing so bestows the following:
You learn a Necromancy cantrip and can cast it at will.
You can hold your spell book or book of shadows as an additional material component when casting a Necromancy spell. If you do you gain either +2 bonus to hit or a +2 bonus to the spell DC.
You gain advantage on any saving through to resist a Necromancy spell.
Finally, whilst your Spell Book/Book of Shadows is within 10ft of you, you can use an action to expend a spell slot, if you do you can roll up to one of your hit dice per level of the spell slot expended and heal that amount of hit points.
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 2
Requires: Tome-bound Lich 1 and be either Wizard (Necromancer) level 6 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 6.
Your research has opened up further lore and insight into death. You learn a ritual that enable you to scribe a Book of Death. This new book contains the basic ritual required to animate the dead and extend life through Necromancy and requires 500gp of materials to create (the DM decides what these will be). If you lose your Book of Death or if it is destroyed, you can perform a 1 hour ritual to summon a copy of the book, doing so requires another 500gp of materials which are consumed during the ritual, if the Book was lost the old book turns to ash when the new one is summoned. The book of Death turns to ash when you die.
You learn the level 3 spell Animate Dead, if you use your Book of Death as an additional Material component you can cast Animate Dead as a ritual with a 10 minute casting time.
You also gain Ghoul Touch. Whilst the Book of Death is within 10ft of you, you can use your action to make a melee spell attack, if you hit the target must make a Constitution Saving throw against your spell DC or be paralysed for 1 minute. The target can attempt a further saving throw at the end of their turns, ending the effect on a successful save.
Finally, although you are not undead you detect as if you were.
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 3
Requires: Tome-bound Lich 2 and be either Wizard (Necromancer) level 9 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 9.
Your research has granted more insights and you discover a ritual to create a Book of Undeath. This new book contains the basic ritual required to manipulate Necrotic energy and further extend life through Necromancy and requires 1000gp of materials to create (the DM decides what these will be). If you lose your Book of Undeath or if it is destroyed, you can perform a 1 hour ritual to summon a copy of the book, doing so requires another 1000gp of materials which are consumed during the ritual. if the Book was lost the old book turns to ash when the new one is summoned. The Book of Undeath turns to ash when you die.
You gain a Frightening Gaze, whist the Book of Undeath is with 10ft of you, you can use your action to attempt to fix your gaze on one creature you can see within 10 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell DC or become frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to your frightening gaze for the next 24 hours.
When you create your Book of Undeath you can select one Sorcerers Meta Magic. Whenever you cast a Necromancy spell you can use your Book of Undeath as an additional material component, if you do you can apply that meta magic to the spell.
Finally, you are now undead and have a recently deceased/zombielike appearance. You can be turned by a clerics channel divinity but not destroyed. You should also check spell descriptions as you may take other effects now you are undead.
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Feat: Tome-bound Lich 4
Requires: Tome-bound Lich 3 and be either Wizard (Necromancer) level 12 or Warlock (Pact of Tome) level 12.
Your research reaches it fruition and you discover the secrets of life in death. You gain two ways to protect your physical body.
If you have your Spell Book/Book of Shadows and your Books of Death and Undeath within 10ft of you when you complete a Long Rest, you can choose to become affected by a Death Ward Spell with a 24 hour duration.
You can also create a ritual circle in a safe haven. If you die and your Spell Book/Book of Shadows and your Books of Death and Undeath are within 10ft of you, you can choose to have them all turn to ash, if you do, your body turns to ash and reappears in your previously created ritual circle if it is on the same plane of existence where it reforms into a new body in 1d10 days, you regain all hit points and any missing body parts, you cannot use this ability if your ritual circle is on a different plane of existence. Creating this ritual circle requires 1000gp of material components (the DM decides what these will be).
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Further to the above and some other threads about players wanting to play as a Lich.....(be warned...this is a long post)...
So you want to be a Lich? Good luck with that!
After reading a few post on D&D beyond about if it is possible to play as a Lich I got to thinking about how I would let a player try to achieve that state and came up with the following set of rituals.
DM's, Feel free to use or not as you see fit. These could be information for players to uncover in order to become lichs or if you have a spell caster as your BBEG this could be used to explain how the spell caster is trying to become a Lich.
Players: Do not assume any of this is appropriate for you to use without triple checking with your DM that they are happy to incorporate it into their campaign.
Lich rituals:
With any of the rituals noted below, the DM can deem additional research, ability skill checks to be required or quests to be completed before they can be attempted. Where Arcana checks are stipulated the DM can substitute Religion if you are a divine spell caster attempting to become a Lich.
Note to DM's: Throughout these rituals are references to "at DM's option" and "of DM's Choosing" I've included these so you can make the rituals as easy or difficult as you want for the potential Lich and to also enable you to go into as much detail as you deem appropriate for your game.
Note to players: Throughout these rituals they are references to "at DM's option" and "of DM's Choosing", if at any point your DM says you cannot perform anything listed below for any reason then don't be an (expletive deleted) about it. Your DM has the final say on when, where, how and indeed if, you can do any of the below.
IMPORTANT: any material components used in any of these rituals are consumed during the ritual regardless of whether it was a success or failure.
Material Components may include any component listed for any spell in any of the published materials and DM's should feel free to use riddles or vague descriptions for players to interpret, such as: A Still living heart, rays of a reflected sun held in darkness etc.
These rituals represent stages in a spell casters development but is a very long and VERY expensive process.
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Before you can attempt to go down the path to Lichdom you need to attune yourself to death and obtain the feat: Tomb Born.
FEAT: Tomb Born:
Requires: The ability to cast at least 2 cantrips and/or spells from the school of Necromancy.
You undergo a magical ritual called "Crucimigration" during which Necromantic magic infuses your mortal form and sustains you, at the DM's option this may require certain research, items or material components to completed but the base version would entail meditating in a coffin or tomb for at least 8 hours. Once completed, your body becomes unusually thin and your flesh is taught over your bones giving you a freakishly gaunt appearance.
Once the ritual is complete you no longer need to sleep, eat or drink, however, you still need to complete a long rest to prepare your spells or pray to your God for spells.
You are also immune to magical sleep.
You also no longer age but can be aged by magical affects.
You can eat if you wish to but you gain no pleasure from doing so, all food and drink tastes like ash. Should the food/drink be poisoned or diseased you can still be affected by those conditions.
You now discern as Undead to any spells or abilities that would detect them, although you cannot be turned/destroyed nor do you take extra damage by spells or abilities such as Channel Divinity as this feat does not actually make you Undead. There is however one major drawback, the necromantic energies infusing you inhibit healing magic, you only receive 50% of any healing from magical means. Many who have undergone this ritual refer to themselves as Necropolitans, that is, creatures that come from death.
Once this feat has been acquired you can start on the following course of research.
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Ritual: Phylactaris Arcana:
Prerequisite: the ability to cast at least 3 spells of 1st level or higher from the school of Necromancy using spell slots.
This ritual is the creation and enchanting of your Phylactery. The Phylactery is the artefact that binds your soul to the material realm and prevents it from moving onto the afterlife.
The Phylactery starts of as any mundane item that has an internal space, suitable items include a box, an amulet with a hollow interior or a crystal vial with a stopper, the internal space can be as small as a pea and there is no limit to how big the internal space can be as long as it is an enclosed space and can be considered a non-magical item. The item to be used must be worth at least 1gp.
The spellcaster must inscribe runes of naming, binding, immortality and dark magic around the inside and outside of the item, for the runes of naming your characters true name must be used. Each rune can be considered to contain all these details with minor variations.
Inscribing a rune requires proficiency in Tinkers or Jewellers Tools.
The item requires 15 runes to become usable as a Lich Phylactery. These runes must be inscribed in silver, each rune requires 1 hour to inscribe and costs 100gp worth of silver and other ritual magic components of the DM's choice in addition to the expenditure of a spell slot of at least 1st level. The spell slot is expended at the start of the hour and you use this magical energy to guide your hands as they etch a rune meaning the actual size of the proposed phylactery is render moot.
After 1 hour you make an Arcana skill check. The base DC for this Arcana check is 10 +1 for each rune being inscribed or currently inscribed on the item, for example, inscribing the first rune requires a successful DC11 check, inscribing the fifth rune would require a DC15 check and inscribing the final rune requires a DC25 check.
If you fail an Arcana check the rune fails to hold the magic expended from the spell slot and the rune is wasted and must be inscribed again, due to this failure the roll for the next attempt is made at disadvantage.
Expending spell slots above 1st level does not provide any bonuses or additional effects during this process.
The DM can impose additional bonuses or penalties they deem appropriate, for example, if you are sailing from one continent to another and have 3 days in a storm and attempt to inscribe a rune they would at least impose disadvantage on the roll, or failing a roll more than once may impose higher DC's.
You can take as long as you need to inscribe the runes, however, unless all 15 runes have been inscribed, a Dispel Magic targeted on the phylactery will disperse all the runes you have inscribed and you will have to start from the beginning again. Once the item has had 15 runes inscribed successfully it becomes enchanted and is considered magical, the only effect it grants at that stage is if you die the Phylactery can be used in place of the usual material components for spells that raise a person from the dead, such as Raise Dead, Reincarnation etc. If used in this fashion the phylactery is destroyed and consumed by the spell and a new one must be created.
Should anyone else look over the phylactery a successful Arcana check (DC is your spell casting DC) will confirm they are necromantic runes dealing with binding, dark magic, immortality and your characters true name (this may not be apparent if you have been using a false name throughout your travels).
Only once the Phylactery has been completed can you progress onto the other rituals.
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The following rituals can be completed in any order as long as you meet the prerequisite noted and have completed the Phylactaris Arcana ritual and used it to inscribe 15 runes onto your phylactery.
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Ritual of Necronomica:
Prerequisites: the ability to cast the spells Animate Dead and Magic Circle.
You can conduct a 4 hour long ritual on your Phylactery to empower each rune. This involves expending three spell slots of at least level 3 and 1000gp worth of material and ritual components of the DM's choice which are consumed by the ritual. The spell slots are expended at the beginning of the ritual and you use the magic of these spell slots to bond further magic to your Phylactery. This ritual needs to be completed 15 times to empower each rune on your Phylactery.
After each ritual is complete you need to make a Arcana check. The DC for this Arcana check is 15 +1 per rune you are empowering or have empowered, for example the DC is 16 for the first rune and 30 for the 15th rune.
Should the ritual be interrupted or otherwise end early, all material components are consumed by the ritual and you take 3d6 Necrotic damage for each hour (rounding up) that the ritual had been active for, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Should you be unable to expend three spell slots of level 3 or high to fuel the ritual, the ritual ends and the material components are consumed and you take 3d6 Necrotic damage, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Once a single rune has been empowered through this ritual you can use your Phylactery as a magical focus for spell casting and can additionally place it on a corpse or pile of bones and cast the Animate Dead spell without expending a spell slot once per long rest, cast in this way you can only animate a single Zombie or Skeleton.
In order to commence the final ritual, all the runes on your Phylactery must have been empowered through this ritual.
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Ritual of Transference:
Prerequisite: The ability to cast the spells Life Transference and Vampiric Touch using a level 3 spell slot.
You can conduct a 4 hour long ritual on your Phylactery to empower each rune. This involves expending a spell slot of at least level 4 and 1000gp worth of material components of the DM's choice. At the start of this ritual you expend a spell slot and use its energy to bind your life force to a rune on your Phylactery. After four hours the ritual is complete and you suffer 20 hit points of damage from the life transference, this damage cannot be reduced or redirected as you willingly drop your resistances etc to fuel the spell. In addition you need to make a Constitution Saving Throw, on a success you suffer one level of exhaustion and the rune becomes empowered and glows faintly with magic, on a failure you suffer a level of exhaustion but the magic fades and does not become empowered. The base DC for this Saving Throw is 10 +1 for each rune being inscribed or currently inscribed, for example, inscribing the first rune requires a successful DC11 Saving Throw, inscribing the fifth rune would require a DC15 Saving Throw and inscribing the final rune requires a DC25 Saving Throw.
Should the ritual be interrupted or otherwise end early, all material components are consumed by the ritual and you take 4d6 Necrotic damage, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Should you be unable to expend a spell slot of level 4 or high to fuel the ritual, the ritual ends and the material components are consumed and you take 4d6 Necrotic damage, this damage ignores any resistance or immunity to Necrotic damage you may have as the ritual consumes part of your essence.
Once a single rune has been empowered you gain a new Action to use. While your phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use your Action to spend one or more of your hit dice to heal yourself, you can use a maximum number of your hit dice equal to your proficiency bonus and once you have used this ability you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest, this healing is pulled from your phylactery and although it is magical it is not reduced by the Tomb Born feat.
In order to commence the final ritual, all runes on your phylactery must have been empowered through this ritual.
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Ritual of the Tomb:
Prerequisite: the ability to cast Contact Other Plane or Commune using a spell slot OR access to the Magic Item: Book of Vile Darkness.
Once you have completed the Phylactaris Arcana ritual you can meditate and cast an 8 hour long ritual to contact a being or patron that can reveal secret rituals and abilities to you. This ritual requires you to have previously contacted an entity via the Contact Other Plane or Commune spell that has confirmed they would be willing to teach you the rituals to become a Lich. This ritual also requires 5000gp of materials of the DM choice. When the ritual starts you expend a spell slot of 5th level or higher to fuel the magic, at that point you contact the entity and negotiate with them for the knowledge you seek and they tutor you over the next 8 hours in the methods of achieving Lichdom. Once completed the DM chooses one of the following five abilities that you have been taught and they may not be given in the order listed and at DM's option they may come with other caveats before you can utilise them such as performing a task for the entity you contacted:
1) You can hold your Phylactery as an additional material component when casting a Necromancy spell. If you do you gain either +2 bonus to hit or a +2 bonus to the spell DC, these bonuses last for the duration of the spell as long as you are holding your Phylactery.
2) Whilst your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you gain advantage on all saving throws to resist spells from the school of Necromancy.
3) Whilst your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use an action to expend a spell slot, if you do you can roll 1d6 per level of the spell slot expended and heal that amount of hit points, this is magical healing but is not reduced by the Tomb Born feat.
4) You learn the Ritual of the Tomb Bound (see below)
5) You learn the Ritual of Soot (see below)
Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 20, suffering 3 levels of exhaustion on a successful saving throw and suffering 5 levels of exhaustion on a failed saving throw, on a natural roll of 1 on the saving throw you are also affected by a Geas cast at 9th level by the entity/patron you were communing with, the DM decides what sort of Geas this will be.
If this ritual is interrupted all components are consumed and you make the above saving throw at disadvantage.
You can repeat this ritual up to five times, gaining a different ability each time.
If you have access to the Book of Vile Darkness you can ignore the need to contact an entity and instead use the book as a focus during the 8 hour ritual, once completed you learn one of the abilities noted above but you still need to make saving throws to avoid the exhaustion and the Book can place you under a Geas on a natural roll of 1.
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Ritual of the Tomb-bound
Prerequisite: Must have completed the Ritual of the Tomb and learned the Ritual of the Tomb-bound and be able to cast a Necromancy spell of 7th level.
Your research and otherworldly mentoring, has opened up further lore and insight into death. You can add a further rune to your phylactery, this requires the expenditure of a level 5 spell slot at the start of the ritual, 2500gp worth of material components of the DMs choice and 4 hours to complete the ritual. After 4 hours you need to roll an Arcana check against a DC of 20. On a failure the magic fades and nothing happens and the components are consumed by the ritual. If you attempt the ritual again you make the ability check at disadvantage. On success you gain the following:
1) If you cast the level 3 spell Animate Dead and you use your Phylactery as an additional Material component you can cast Animate Dead as a ritual with a 10 minute casting time. Your control over the Zombies and Skeletons raised with this ritual version of Animate Dead lasts until the zombies or skeletons are destroyed.
2) You also gain a special Paralyzing Touch attack. Whilst your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use your action to make a melee spell attack, if you hit the target must make a Constitution Saving throw against your spell DC or be paralysed for 1 minute. The target can attempt a further saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on a successful save. If a target makes the save against your attack they are immune to your paralysing touch for 24 hours.
Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 20, suffering 3 levels of exhaustion on a successful saving throw and suffering 5 levels of exhaustion on a failed saving throw.
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Ritual of Soot
Prerequisite: Must have completed the Ritual of the Tomb and learned the Ritual of Soot and be able to cast a Necromancy spell of 7th level.
Your research and other worldly mentoring has granted more insights and you discover a ritual to harness Undeath, manipulate necrotic energy and further extend life through Necromancy. You can add a further rune to your phylactery, this requires the expenditure of a level 5 spell slot at the start of the ritual, 2500gp material components of the DMs choice and 4 hours to complete the ritual. After 4 hours you need to roll an Arcana check against a DC of 20. On a failure the magic fades and nothing happens. If you attempt the ritual again you make the ability check at disadvantage. On success you gain the following:
You gain a Frightening Gaze, whist your Phylactery is within 10ft of you, you can use your action to attempt to fix your gaze on one creature you can see within 10 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell DC or become frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to your frightening gaze for the next 24 hours.
When you create this new rune on your Phylactery you can select one Sorcerers Meta Magic, whenever you then cast a Necromancy spell you can use your Phylactery as an additional material component, if you do you can apply that meta magic to the spell.
Finally, you are now undead and have a recently deceased/zombielike appearance but no other special abilities, resistances or immunities. You can be turned by channel divinity and effects that mimic channel divinity but not destroyed. You should also check spell descriptions as you may take other effects now you are undead.
Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 20, suffering 3 levels of exhaustion on a successful saving throw and suffering 5 levels of exhaustion on a failed saving throw.
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Transcend the Mortal Form
Prerequisite: Must have completed all the rituals noted above and have a fully empowered Phylactery and be a 18th level spell caster.
Your research reaches it fruition and you discover the secrets of life in death. This final ritual requires 25,000gp of material components of the DM's choice and requires 30 days to complete as you empower the phylactery with all your knowledge and fuel your transcendence into and Undead form. Once this ritual has been completed you must make a Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 25, on a success you are now a Lich, on a failure you DIE as your still mortal form proves to weak to cage the magical energies you are trying to harness.
If you are successful, your mortal form becomes more corpse like and you gain the following:
You gain Damage Immunities: Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing From Nonmagical Attacks
You gain Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals cold damage you gain Damage Resistance: Cold
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals lightning damage you gain Damage Resistance: Lightning
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals necrotic damage you gain Damage Resistance: Necrotic
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals cold damage you gain Damage Resistance: Cold
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals poison damage you gain Damage Immunity: Poison and Immunity to the Poisoned Condition.
* If you have know a spell of 5th level or higher that deals charms or dominates humanoids you gain Immunity to the Charmed Condition.
**If you have access to the Book of Vile Darkness and can use it during this ritual you automatically gain all damage resistances and condition immunities regardless of which spells you know.
***also note following these rituals does not grant any Legendary actions or legendary resistances or any Lair actions or regional effects.
Your Phylactery is now fully empowered and works as described in the Monster Manual.
So you successfully became a Lich, now what?
Well, no w you have to remember to feed souls to your phylactery to stay immortal, ok what follows is mostly NPC stuff for DM's to use around feeding and story hooks.
Now the Monster Manual (pg 202) states that a soul must be feed to the Phylactery periodically but does not say how often. Now we can infer that Lichs are not ravenous hunger obsessed individuals so the timescale mentioned of "24 hours" for a body and soul to be consumed by a Phylactery is just the time scale you have to free someone that has been imprisoned, so it would be safe to assume that all a Lich has to do is remember to feed souls on a regular basis. There are a few options for this and remember that the level 9 spell Imprisonment spell is required for this:
1) One soul grants one year of immortality. As a Phylactery can only hold one soul at a time this means the Lich has to imprison another soul after a year and a day (because you cannot imprison another until the first one has worn off).
2) One Soul grants a number of years of Immortality equal to the number of hit dice it has. This gives a bit of flexibility to the Lich, a standard humanoid will have 1 hit dice and do in a pinch but it also gives them a more villainous aspect if they purposely go out hunting powerful adventurers to feed to their Phylactery, a level 10-15 adventurer can sustain them for a long time.
3) One soul grants a number of years of immortality equal to the Lichs Hit Dice. This makes it a little easier on the Lich as they can plan with certainty when they next need to feed a soul to the Phylactery.
4) The Lich needs to feed a number of souls equal to their hit dice to the Phylactery every 100 years. This one is a bit harder to monitor as the Lich needs to keep track of time and plan out when each soul is going to wear off.
5) (Player Lich) accept that the campaign is unlikely to stretch of many years/lifetimes s this is all a bit moot. As long as a soul is sacrificed to the Phylactery every year of game time it should be ok.
The feeding cycle of a Lich does make for a useful story hook. here's a few options:
1) The Lich sends out minions to stalk likely candidates and then it goes on something akin to a fox hunt, pursuing its intended victim. It does not need to rest unless it needs to restore its spell slots so proves to be a relentless hunter.
2) The party come across a village, it is pleasant and everyone is friendly and amiable, it is quite idyllic. Once a year however they hold an event to find the summer king/queen. It is always hotly contested and is comprised of a series of events and challenges. The winner is sent to to the Feywild to live forever in the summer court with the fey. Over course the reality is a Lich has duped the town for generations and imprisons the winner to sustain them for another year.
3) (A good/neutral aligned Lich option) A merchant guild hires the party to investigate the disappearance of a ship, they suspect pirates. In reality a Lich has been attacking the guilds ships as they are slavers. The Lich sets the slaves and most of the crew free with a threat that if they reveal who attacked them a fate worse than death awaits them. The Captains are always taken and used to fuel the Lichs phylactery, they are held in a Demiplane so escape is impossible. Backstory wise, the Lich may have been a slave sold to a Necromancer who managed to survive and indeed thrive in their indenture and became a practitioner of arcane arts with the sole goal of gaining revenge on the merchant guild that sold them.
4) (good aligned lich option) The Lich is a goodly aligned servant of a Celestial power sworn to never-ending vigilance and protection of an area where a powerful demon is imprisoned. Every year a willing servant of the celestial power goes to be imprisoned to help the Lich. (Think the Emperor on the Golden Throne from War hammer 40k). The party may be feed information about this Lich that has so dominate an area that it can control people and force them to sacrifice themselves only for the party to find out the group feeding them information is a cabal of demon worshipers and they have to side with the Lich to defeat them.
Also now available as pdf here if you want to download it for easier perusing:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ww4Mcl9SozZdVkNNwIUQS-TfgunDIGzY
and seeing if I can put it on Drivethru rpg as a free product.
Now available thru Drivethru RPG/DMs Guild as well
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/290485/Spell-Casting-101-Lich-Rituals?term=lich rituals